Taiwan Matters!

Now's your chance: You be you!A group of Taiwanese-Americans produced this great video below as part of a campaign to address the problem of their group's underrepresentation and to fix it -- or to at least get the ball rolling -- in the United States Census 2010.In previous censuses, many...

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RedirectIn case you've arrived here via an RSS reader or a link created by a service such as Twitterfeed, the post about Taiwan's humpback pink dolphins is actually located on Ben Goren's personal blog, Letters from Taiwan. Just follow the link above.Sorry for any inconvenience.* * *Taiwan is not a...

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Three out of four ain't badToday in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Chiayi, and Hualien, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won three of the four elections which were held to replace legislators elected to other positions in last December's 3-in-1 election.Huang Jen-chu (黃仁杼) beat Apollo Chen (陳學聖) and two "independent" candidates in Taoyuan,...

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Putting Taiwan in the spotlightWill Tiao, the producer of the film "Formosa Betrayed" (被出賣的台灣), which is being released across the United States today, sent this around [emphasis mine]:Dear Friends,This weekend, February 26-28, a new movie about Taiwan will be coming to theaters. Formosa Betrayed is the first American film to...

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Yesterday, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou inadvertently referred to the ROC Government as the 'Chinese (adjective) Government'. Here's how the Taipei Times reported it:President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday morning thanked the outgoing Solomon Islands ambassador at the Presidential Office, but referred to his administration as the “Chunghua...

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A twofer holiday!In addition to being Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010 (Sunday) is New Year's Day as celebrated in several Asian countries. Many people use the term "Chinese New Year" to describe the holiday, despite the fact that the direct back-translation "中國新年" is rarely used; furthermore, it doesn't just belong...

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Part XIIIMichael Danielsen, chairman of Denmark's Taiwan Corner and one of the signatories of the Open letter to President Ma Ying-jeou last November, rebuts Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin's (蘇俊賓) response to Richard Kagan last month with a piece in today's Taipei Times titled "Democratic liberty is fundamental."Here are...

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One often overlooked part of the R.O.C polity's State structure is the The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) created in 1928. This body hitherto has had the responsibility for "enhancing Taiwan’s relations with Mongolia and the Tibetan government-in-exile". News has now come in that the commission may...

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Last night, Taiwan's MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) argued that China would not be able to tolerate an ECFA with Taiwan when any pro-Taiwan independence party was in power. In Liu's own words, "The ECFA is a political and economic asset that the KMT has fought to...

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In case you still had any doubts...It should be obvious to anyone not in a persistent vegetative state (and even that might not be enough of an obstacle to miss this) that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) being "negotiated" between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan and the...

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Taiwan News is reporting that the GIO is piling the pressure on the PTS Chairman Cheng Tung-liao who filed a lawsuit against the Government for illegally planting 8 new board members, most of whom were chosen for their support for the Government or President:The GIO accused Cheng of illegally...

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Mike Turton recently featured a letter sent by Kristalina I. Georgieva Vice President and Corporate Secretary of The World Bank Group which all but annexed Taiwan to China.  Here is my email to Ms Georgieva, which I forwarded to FTV and Liberty Times:Dear Kristalina,In reference to your circular email in...

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Sweeping those dirty counties clean!All three of yesterday's by-elections to choose new legislators in Taoyuan (桃園), Taichung (台中), and Taitung (台東) Counties -- all Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) strongholds -- were won by pro-Taiwan opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates, and won by surprising margins.While the Taitung by-election was held...

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A course in dissemblingBeginning in November 2008, when former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was first jailed after a long trial by media, a series of open letters on the erosion of justice in Taiwan under the administration of current President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) began. Fourteen months later, the deceptive replies...

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Minister of the Government Information Office is quoted in a letter from him to the Taipei Times on the topic of Taiwan's official name following Richard Kagan's criticism of the administration for accepting 'Chinese Taipei':"... given Taiwan’s unique international status, use of our national title is beyond our control."* *...

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Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) discussed the party's plans to sell of its remaining assets & investments and switch itself, "like a Transformer," into an "election machine" (his words, not mine).What I love about this "strategy," besides the Transformers reference and the fact that it will doubtlessly...

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People who don't know much about freedom of speechOn Thursday, December 24, 2009, Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) gave a speech at Taichung's Providence University (靜宜大學). The day before his speech, flyers advertising the speech had been distributed all around the campus, but by the day of the event, they...

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Jennings can't read?Earlier today via Twitter user anitaworld, I came across the latest piece of anti-Taiwan propaganda from Reuters. The headline reads:One hurt, six detained in Taiwan scuffle over ChinaThe average reader might not have any idea what's beneath that headline. Is Taiwan "fighting to take over China" or something?...

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The Ministry of Interior recently accused newly elected Hualien County Commissioner (and 'ex' KMT loyalist) of conducting a fake divorce in order to appoint his 'ex'-wife as Deputy County Commissioner. As reported in the Times:Newly elected Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi’s (傅崑萁) appointment of his ex-wife as deputy commissioner is...

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FTW!Thanks to David and Fili for hosting the Taiwanderful Taiwan Best Blog Awards 2009 and to all the members of the Taiwan Matters! blog team for contributing their unique insights into the politics of the country which I have called "home" for many years now. It's quite a pleasant surprise...

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Step out and join the fun* on December 20Despite the protests last November to let him know he is not welcome here, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) is coming back to Taiwan to push forward a party-to-party (Chinese Communist Party [CCP]-to-Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT])...

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Another look at the Global Views survey of October 2009For several weeks, I have owed my readers the second part of my analysis of the recent Global Views Magazine opinion poll. The poll asked the usual questions about the attitudes of Taiwanese towards "independence versus unification." I've finally gotten around...

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DPP makes gains, but they aren't enoughToday's Taipei Times had a good visual analysis of the election result in PDF form [link updated] comparing the results with the turnout of the last Township/City/County election in 2005 and showing that out of the locales that were involved (Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taichung, and...

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As I have said in my previous analysis, I see little chance of a lot changing in the election which will happen in just 47 hours.At best the DPP will hold onto their current 3 seats and pick up Yilan, which is dead even by gangster estimates; the KMT...

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According to author and exiled Chinese law professor Yuan Hongbing, Beijing has made clear plans to achieve annexation of Taiwan via principally economic means. In an interview with Yuan, and a review of his new book, 'Taiwan Disaster', Wu Tsen-hsi of the Epoch Times lays out Yuan's take on...

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